Iran relied on the rebel Houthis group of Yemen to reach a truce with the United States on the Red Sea attacks in a movement aimed at advancing negotiations for an agreement on the Tehran nuclear program, according to reports.
US President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday evening the end of hostilities with the Houthis, catching Israeli officials by surprise. The announcement has not mentioned the Houthi missiles and the ongoing drone attacks against Israel, and officials of the Yemeni rebellious group promised that such strikes would continue.
Two Iranian officials, one of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the other of the Revolutionary Guards, said that Iran had persuaded the Houthis to stop their attacks on American assets as part of Omani mediation efforts, the New York Times reported.
CNN cited people familiar with the question as saying that Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, had worked with the Omanis in last week to negotiate the American cease-fire. The sources said that the ceasefire was also supposed to help enhance in Iranian nuclear talks, which Witkoff also directed on behalf of the Trump administration.
There have already been three series of nuclear talks, although one date for the fourth has not yet been set, although it is likely to take place this weekend.
Oman also mediates nuclear talks and welcomed some of the rounds.
The workers cross the rubble of a school building destroyed in Ramat Gan, near Tel Aviv, on December 19, 2024, after the campus was hit by a Houthis missile from Yemen. (Jack Guez / AFP)
Trump, who withdrew the United States from a 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and the world powers, reported confidence in the winning a new pact that blocks the path from Iran to a nuclear bomb, but threatened to attack if diplomacy fails.
While announcing the truce with the Houthis, Trump, who should visit the Middle East this month, also said that he had a “very, very, very big announcement to make … as as big as possible … and it’s really positive”. The president said he would not give details until later in the week.
Oman later revealed that he had mediated the ceasefire agreement, according to which neither of the two parties will target the other, including American ships in the Red Sea and the Bab Al-Mandab Strait.
According to CNN, negotiations between the United States and the Houthis were stimulated by remarks by the US Secretary for Defense Pete Hegseth, who posted last week that Iran “will pay the consequences at the time and at the place of our choice” if it continued “a lethal support for the Houthis”.
An American official said that the Trump administration had not informed Israel in advance of an agreement with the Houthis to stop the attacks.
Israel only learned the ceasefire when Trump announced it publicly at an oval office meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.
The American official’s comment confirmed that the Hebrew media have reports that Israeli officials said Jerusalem had been taken by the announcement.
A document photo provided by the office of the supreme chief of Iran, the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, shows him the reception of Mohammed Abdulsalam (L), spokesperson for the Houthis Movement of Yemen, in Tehran on July 30, 2024. (website of the Iranian Supreme Leader / AFP))
The chief negotiator of the Houthis, Mohammed Abdulsalam, told Reuters on Wednesday that the cease-fire is not intended for operations against Israel “in any way, of form or form”.
In a statement on Tuesday, the Houthis said that their “initial understanding” with the United States would have no impact on its support for the Palestinians in Gaza, where Israel is at war with the Hamas terrorist group.
In remarks to the news agency Saba led by the Houthi quoted by Times, Mahdi Al-Mashat, head of the Supreme Political Council of Houthi, also said: “There is no support for Gaza, regardless of the cost. What happened proves that our strikes are painful and will continue. ”
Mashat apparently referred to an exchange of fire between Israel and the Houthis in recent days, after a Houthis ballistic missile landed inside the perimeter of Ben -Gurion airport of Israel on Sunday, injuring several people and inviting Israeli air strikes on Monday on the port of Hodeida and other targets of the Yemen infrastructure. These strikes were followed Tuesday by other attacks which, according to the Israeli army, had “completely disabled” Sanaa international airport in the capital controlled by Houthi. The strike would have caused around $ 500 million in damage.
Asked Tuesday later on Houthi’s commitments to continue attacks on Israel, Trump replied: “I’m going to discuss it if something happens.”
“I don’t know about it, but I know one thing: they don’t want to have anything to do with us, and they made it known through all their substitutes,” the president told journalists.
This document photo published by the branch affiliated with Houthi from the Yemeni news agency Saba on May 6, 2025, shows destruction at Sanaa International Airport after an Israeli strike on the capital of Yemen, the rebel capital Sanaa. (Saba / AFP)
The Republican Senator Lindsey Graham from South Carolina, one of Trump’s main loyalists in the US Congress upper Congress, said ISRAEL is alone to defend himself against Iran’s attacks and his attorney.
“Regarding the Houthis who continue to attack Israel – they do so at the risk of Iran. Without Iran, Houthis do not have the capacity to attack America, international delivery or Israel,” Graham wrote on X. “To my friends in Israel, do what you have to do to protect your Airspace and your people.
In recent weeks, the Iranians have repeatedly said that they had no control over the Houthis.
Iran’s supreme chief Ali Khamenei in March said that the Houthis, a terrorist group aligned by Iran who controls a large part of Yemen, acts alone.
Trump at the time said he would keep Iran responsible for the attacks by the Houthis, while the US military has made waves of strikes against the group, in the largest American military operation in the Middle East since returning to the White House.
